Comments Off on Wind Farms Off the Coast of Rhode Island Could Generate 1,000 GW of Electricity

Secretary Ken Salazar made an appearance in Rhode Island today to announce that the Federal government was accepting applications for offshore wind farm projects off the coast of the state and that it would start signing offshore leases for those projects by 2012. Rhode Island is getting special attention because of the huge potential for offshore wind in the state.Â Salazar pointed to an NREL study that found that Rhode Island offshore wind farms could potentially generate 1,000 gigawatts of electricity — enough to power most of the U.S. The state has already announced plans for a couple of offshore projects:Â one is a smaller wind farm that will power the currently diesel-generator-dependent Block Island and feed any excess power to the mainland and the other is the huge 1,000 MW Deepwater Wind Energy Center that will be located in the Rhode Island Sound with transmission lines running from Massachusetts to New York. With the government pledging to start signing offshore leases and the wealth of electricity that could be generated, there will likely be more cropping up soon. via Huffington Post

Comments Off on Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Large Hydropower Reservoirs Far Lower Than Currently Assumed

Three Gorges Dam, photo: Harvey Barrison / CC BY-SA From an environmental perspective hydropower is a mixed bag. Depending on how it’s done (micro, small, run of river, large scale) it can be anything from a great low-carbon sustainable energy source to an environmental disaster destroying habitat, displacing people and animals, and even spewing greenhouse gases from the l… Read the full story on TreeHugger

As we noted last week, Ford will soon have two models of the same car to compete with both the Chevrolet Volt and the Toyota Prius. In addition to this, Ford is also bringing out a pure electric version of its Focus model , which will can compete with the Nissan Leaf.

Comments Off on High-Efficiency Hydraulic Hybrid Car Could Get 170 MPG

INGOCAR is a developmental concept for a 5 passenger car with a hydraulic drive system in place of a conventional powertrian. With the weight reduction this offers and other efficiencies in the systems, the designers say their vehicle could get 170 mpg.

AT&T has just announced a USB-based telephone charger that does not pull electricity from the wall when it’s not charging a phone. I don’t know about you, but my charger is plugged in 100% of the time. That charger pulls a tiny amount of energy from the wall 24 hours a day 365 days a year.